


A Little Razzle Dazzle

by Delphinapterus



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gen, Magic Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-24
Updated: 2010-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 05:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphinapterus/pseuds/Delphinapterus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even before he had officially met them Bob had heard about The Way Brothers (when Brian talked about them he always capitalized it - it was worse than the little finger wiggling air quotes people used for reasons Bob still didn't understand ) and their antics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Razzle Dazzle

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written as comment fic for harborshore

Even before he had officially met them Bob had heard about The Way Brothers (when Brian talked about them he always capitalized it - it was worse than the little finger wiggling air quotes people used for reasons Bob still didn't understand ) and their antics. Brian had once lamented the fact that they couldn't be like the Gallagher brothers since he had it on good authority those two were easier to manage than Mikey and Gerard. Bob refrained from pointing out that Brian wanted to be a manager so he didn't have to break up fights all the time instead he made appropriately commiserative noises and shared his last cigarette with Brian.

"It's not that they're horrible, they're just... you know, The Ways" Brian waved his hands just like he always did when he tried to explain what exactly it was about The Way Brothers that freaked him out.

The first time Bob met them Mikey was slumped against the back wall of the little venue's dressing room holding a coffee cup and watching intently as Gerard tried unsuccessfully to do something with a folded sheet of paper. It looked suspiciously like origami to Bob. Mikey blinked up at him where he stood awkwardly next to Brian. Gerard huffed and shook out the sheet of paper only to start refolding it again.

"Hey, you're doing sound for us. That's awesome." Mikey smiled at him showing off a crooked eye tooth and nudged Gerard with the toe of his shoe.

Gerard pushed his hair out of his eyes and grinned widely at them both.

"Hey, thanks. Brian said you're awesome, man."

Bob shifted uncomfortably and wondered why he'd decided to let Brian talk him into doing sound for his new band when he could be huddled into his blankets and quietly fighting off his post-tour cold. Then he remembered that Brian was a persuasive motherfucker who'd shown up at his door with bribes, which was why Bob was standing there feeling chilly and wishing he'd popped another aspirin. Gerard let out a triumphant whoop and handed Mikey a tiny folded square of paper. Mikey stared at it as though he was willing it to do something.

"Look, Gee made me a cup." Mikey told him holding out his hand. "Mine always get soggy."

Resting in his palm was a small paper cup where Bob would have sworn there should only have been flat folded paper. Brian clapped Bob on the shoulder and left him to deal with The Way Brothers. Gerard patted the ground next to him and Bob eased down to sit beside him. Gerard tilted over until he was leaning heavily against Bob's side. He was expecting it after Brian's exasperated rants about trying to teach his band the idea of personal space so he braced himself better and prepared to be a pillow for Brian's lead singer. However, instead of settling, Gerard jerked up right again.

"You're sick."

Bob shrugged. "Just an end of tour cold."

Bob had meant to be reassuring but his words seemed to be having the opposite effect since Gerard was now whacking ineffectively at Mikey's ankle. Mikey blinked slowly which made Gerard switch to tugging at Mikey's shoe. Judging by Gerard's increasingly exaggerated facial expressions and Mikey's blinking and foot twitching the Ways were the sort of close that let them carry on whole conversations without talking. It was no wonder Brian got exasperated with them at times. Bob leaned back, lit another cigarette, and watched them. They both looked over at him and went completely still. He stared back at them. Neither Way moved. Fuck. Brian would kill him if he came back and found them both playing statues with less than twenty minutes to show time. He was trying to decide if waving a hand in front of Gerard's face (he was closer) would be better or worse than just pinching him when both Ways suddenly jerked. Mikey scrambled to his knees and crawled so that he was pressed against Bob's left side while Gerard rolled until he could fit himself against Bob's right side. Both Ways sighed and pressed more firmly against him. Gerard patted his knee in what Bob assumed was supposed to be a reassuring way but served only to highlight just how tightly they were pressed against him. Across the room the bouquet of daisies (and where the hell did they come from?) drooped sadly in their beer bottle.

As weird as it was the Ways were actually really nice to have pressed up against him because they were hot. Really hot. If Bob hadn't been able to see them he would have thought they were both running fevers. The worse of his chills were being forced away by their body heat and even his headache seemed to be going away. It was too nice for him to bother moving them and besides the last time he'd shifted Mikey had clamped an arm over his waist to make him sit still. Mikey was surprisingly strong and Bob wasn't that motivated to move. He watched a petal slowly fall off one of the daisies. The door slammed open as Brian entered and he glared at the three of them. Gerard waved lazily at him with the hand that wasn't curled over Bob's knee.

"Five minutes, up, up, you need to be out there." Brian told them, waving his hands in a shooing motion.

Mikey rolled gracefully onto his feet. Gerard used Bob's shoulder to lever himself up. Both Ways picked their way carefully over to the daisies. Bob was expecting to feel cold once they'd moved but instead the toasty warm feeling remained. It was weird. He watched Mikey stroke the remaining petals of one flower before he turned away.

Bob spent the show being impressed by Brian's new band and waiting for his headache and chills to reappear. They never did and by the time he had been taken to a late night dinner he was seriously beginning to wonder if he'd imagined the feeling of coming down with a cold.

* * *

It wasn't until after he'd joined My Chem for their European tour that he really started to suspect that the Ways weren't entirely normal. It was little things really that individually he would have brushed off as tiredness making him silly but together it was just weird and not the normal sort of tour weird either. Nothing was ever locked for Mikey. Bob had seen him open doors that he knew were locked in venues from London to Madrid. What Bob had never seen was Mikey being unable to open something from a hotel door to a pickle jar. Gerard healed people. It was the only explanation that Bob could see for how Gerard would press tight to Frank when he was starting to come down with something and after he left Frank would be better for a few days. He kept thinking back to the first time he'd met the Ways and wondering. Gerard also seemed to leave dead plants in his wake.

They were almost through the tour when Bob decided he had to know for sure. Not knowing was a niggling itch that he kept scratching by trying to catch the Ways in the act. It was worse than when he'd first gotten his lip pierced and had to force himself not to play with it constantly. His plan, as plans went, was simple. He was going to lock his door and have Mikey open it. Bob would have been the first to admit that it probably wasn't the best plan in the world but touring didn't leave a lot of room for long term set up and he was running out of time anyway. He bribed Brian into letting him room with Mikey and Gerard. He knew that Frank and Ray were planning to ambush Gerard and get him into the shower at least once before they had to leave which meant he was free to lay his trap for Mikey. Filching the key from Mikey was easy because Bob was good at being unnoticed and Mikey had a habit of keeping the key in his jacket.

Bob had assumed he'd see the chain on the door moving when Mikey opened it but instead the door blurred in a way that made his eyes hurt. He blinked and the door was open. It wasn't as showy as Bob thought magic should be but at the same time it made more sense. He meant to say something clever but what he did say was "that was locked."

"I had the key." Mikey's eyebrow quirked upwards as though he was wondering why Bob was missing that fact.

"The chain was on." Bob said since it was an important point to mention.

"Oh."

"You open things." Bob winced because that sounded a lot more accusing than it did in his head.

"Yeah." Mikey said sounding supremely unconcerned.

He stretched out full length on the bed and stretched. His toes wiggled in his socks that used to be white but were now greyish from being thrown in with Gerard's black pants.

"You're magic." Bob said testing the words out because out loud it sounded a little ridiculous.

Mikey hummed and twisted himself over until Bob heard his back crack. His eyes were closed behind his glasses as though he owned up to being magic every day. Bob had been braced for denial and his plan was getting thrown for a loop. Mikey rolled onto his back again and stared at the ceiling.

"You and Gerard are magic." Bob said again feeling slightly hysterical that everything was so calm. "What are you?"

Mikey sat up and glared at him. "We're us."

"But are you like elves or something?" Bob persisted.

Mikey pinched the bridge of his noses, "No. We're just y'know us."

"We don't sparkle like fairies either." Gerard said from where he was leaning against the wall. Bob goggled at him. Gerard was not stealthy. Gerard did not slip into rooms unnoticed or...

"Holy fuck, you teleport?"

"No, we tried but it doesn't work." Gerard said sadly.

Mikey nodded. They both stared at him as though waiting for him to do something. It reminded him of the first time.

"You magicked me, didn't you?"

The Ways glanced at each other then back to Bob. Gerard gnawed at his thumb nail. Bob stared back at them.

Gerard finally cracked which Bob was counting on. "You were sick. We just... you were sick and you came out to do sound for us and," Gerard looked over at Mikey who finished, "we just wanted to help. "

"Ah, thanks." Bob said because he really didn't know what else to say to that. Both Ways beamed at him.

"Does everyone know?"

"Just Frank and Ray, they figured it out too" Mikey said after a second which was sort of weird because usually Gerard answered the questions for them.

"We don't wanna be like experiments, y'know?" Gerard broke in.

"I won't tell." Bob said feeling a little stung that they even had to wonder.

Gerard's eyes widened and Mikey said "We know that, jesus, we wouldn't have let you know otherwise."

"You're Bob, of course you won't"

Bob didn't know how to answer the fierce conviction in Gerard's voice. He never put that much trust in anyone as quickly as the Ways had shown him their secret. It was little scary. He was saved from having to say something by Ray banging on the door to get them to come out for dinner. Sometimes Ray had really good timing. Gerard left immediately with one backward glance at Mikey.

"We cool?" Mikey asked staring at him intently.

"Yeah, we're cool."


End file.
